


Cyclamen

by FuryBeam136



Series: Hanahaki is Fury’s Shit [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Hanahaki Disease, hanahaki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 04:34:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16716671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuryBeam136/pseuds/FuryBeam136
Summary: And they talk, and Markus tells him to come over some time, and Connor feels warm for the first time since Amanda trapped him in the garden. He smiles genuinely, and when Markus leaves, he realizes that damn, he might just love him.Oh. Connor might just love him.





	Cyclamen

**Author's Note:**

> Most people: Connor loves flowers  
> Me: CONNOR HATES FLOWERS CAUSE THEY REMIND HIM OF AMANDA

Connor hates flowers. They remind him of the garden, of all the things he wants to leave behind. But of course, the universe won’t let him forget. No, he’s not allowed to forget. Flowers are so common, so vital to human customs. He’s received so many of them. He hates it.

They send him bouquets of colourful blooms with their sickly sweet fragrance, with notes attached. Apologies from CyberLife. Well-wishes from strangers. Thank yous from androids he freed. And each bundle is thrown away, the petals scattered to the wind.

And then Markus sends him a bouquet of yellow roses with a note attached. A note calling Connor a good friend. A good friend.

Connor keeps the roses, crumpled the note in his hands. Markus doesn’t know. Of course he doesn’t know. He can’t know how much Connor hates roses. After all, Connor hasn’t said a word.

The roses are long since dead when Connor sees Markus again. The deviant leader is standing on his doorstep with concern on his face.

“I haven’t seen you since the revolution,” Markus says. “I came to see if you were okay.”

“I’m fine,” Connor says. He’s lying, Markus can clearly tell he’s lying. “Why don’t you come inside?”

And they talk, and Markus tells him to come over some time, and Connor feels warm for the first time since Amanda trapped him in the garden. He smiles genuinely, and when Markus leaves, he realizes that damn, he might just love him.

Oh. Connor might just love him.

Connor doesn’t know how to love someone. He doesn’t want to push things. And he doesn’t want to lose control again. Besides, Markus is the deviant leader. He can have anyone.

And that’s why Connor isn’t surprised when he sees Markus holding North’s hand, skin melted away. What does surprise him is the feeling of something foreign in his chest, of his Thirium pump contracting painfully. He coughs. There’s an obstruction in his airway.

A single pink petal flutters to the ground. Connor hates flowers.

He returns to his house to find a ring of pink blooms around his Thirium pump. He scans them. The blooms are the distinct upswept flowers of Cyclamen, but he knows this isn’t an ordinary Cyclamen plant, it can’t be.

He hates that he knows so much about the plants. He hates that he has to look at these flowers. He _hates this._

Amanda’s gentle touch ghosts across his skin and he shivers. He hates these flowers. He wants them to go away.

He doesn’t enter rest mode. He can’t. He won’t lower his guard. And he remembers Markus telling him to come over sometime. He wants to. But Markus is so busy, Connor doesn’t want to intrude.

He sees the garden behindhis dropping eyelids, and before he can regret it he calls Markus. Markus sounds surprised to hear him.

_“Connor? Are you alright?”_

There’s a long pause during which Connor tries to compose himself.

“I’m fine. Everything’s fine. I don’t know why I called.”

_”Connor. You don’t sound fine. I’m coming over there.”_

“No, no, I’m fine.”

_”You sure?”_

“Yes. I just... it’s too quiet.”

There’s a pause during which Connor’s Thirium pump beats hard and fast and the flowers push against his chassis briefly.

“Markus. Please. Just... talk.”

_”Con, why don’t you just turn on a radio or something?”_

“I don’t know. I... I guess I could do that, I didn’t mean to bother you.”

_”Connor-“_

He ends the connection and gasps in pain as the Cyclamen flowers twist around his Thirium tubing and choke his lungs. He coughs weakly, and the upswept pink blossom that spills from his lips is stained blue.

Oh.

This is... not ideal.

Connor feels exhausted. He hasn’t entered rest mode in days, he needs to. But he’s scared. He’s alone.

His eyes drift shut anyway.

They open and immediately Connor leans forward and purges flowers from his system. He deactivated his skin to examine the plants moving with his veins. Amanda flashes in his mind. He wants this to stop.

He hides it. Why wouldn’t he? He doesn’t need everyone worrying about him. Markus breaks up with North. Connor _might have a chance._

But then he sees Markus and Josh in the streets, sees Josh press a kiss to Markus’ lips, and he doesn’t even stop to watch Markus react, his Thirium pump is pounding and everything hurts, he needs to get away, he needs to _get away._

The Cyclamen are crushing his heart, his veins, his lungs. He can’t breathe. He chokes on Thirium-coated petals in an alley until his throat is raw and he feels lightheaded at the amount of blue blood he’s lost.

Maybe he should just die here. That would be... nice.

The world falls away. When it comes back, he’s being examined by an android with a gentle face. She smiles sadly at him.

“Who is it?” she asks. He doesn’t understand, he opens his mouth to voice his confusion, but she stops him. “Who do you love?”

Connor shakes his head. No, he won’t tell her who he loves, it won’t work out, it’ll never work. He doesn’t say a word.

The flowers eat at his body and mind and he keeps remembering, he hates remembering. He runs a search on Cyclamen, hoping beyond hope that this is a normal trait of the flower. It isn’t. Of course it isn’t.

He learns that in the language of flowers, Cyclamen means resignation. How oddly fitting. Connor has resigned to this fate. To looking at these wretched flowers until he dies.

“There are two ways to survive this,” the gentle android tells him, and he listens. “Your love might be reciprocated, which would be the preferable option. Alternatively... the flowers can be removed. But the survival rate for the procedure is low, and feelings are removed with the flowers.”

Connor wants to feel. So he refuses the procedure and goes home, where his mind begins to unravel and the flowers in his body do nothing but remind him of everything he wants to forget. He hears someone come in while he’s drowning in emotion, and everything hurts so much more when he sees Markus.

“Connor-“

“I hate flowers,” Connor interrupts quietly, and Markus freezes. “I hate them.”

“You can get them removed, Connor.”

“But I want to feel, Markus. I don’t want to stop feeling.”

There’s a long pause in which Cyclamen curl around Connor’s veins in response to his nervousness, his fear. And then when Connor starts coughing again, Markus speaks.

“Who do you love, Connor?”

Connor shakes his head. “It’s not worth talking about. They love someone else anyway.” Markus turns to leave, but Connor grabs his trailing coat. “Stay,” he pleads. “Stay.”

Everything hurts so much, but it hurts just a little less when Markus is there. Connor doesn’t want Markus to leave.

Markus talks about anything and everything until late into the night when Connor’s systems can’t keep up with his racing mind and he slips into rest mode to give them a break.

Connor wakes to pain, to fire in his being. He’s dying, he’s almost relieved he is. But it hurts so much. It hurts so much.

He drags his finger through his blood and traces a pattern on the ground. A word. The problem and its solution all at once.

_**Markus** _

A single lily, large and orange like the twilight sky, blooms over his heart.

Orange lilies. In the language of flowers, they are symbolic of hatred.

The world fades to black.

Then it comes back. Markus is holding his broken body close and crying. Connor thinks he must have died.

“Connor, no, don’t you dare die on me.”

“Mmmmarkus.” His voice is slurred, he’s never experienced such a feeling before. He’s tired.

“Stay awake, Connor, please. Tell me who it is so I can save you.”

Connor chokes on a bitter laugh at that, Markus’ name still scrawled across the floor plain as day. He doesn’t say a word, just lets his fingers (still bloody) trace a blue heart beside the name.

“Connor. You _dumbass_. I love you too.”

“Josh...?”

“Oh, you saw that?” Markus looks embarrassed. “We talked. I don’t feel for him that way, you know? Everything’s okay, though.”

His heart falters and the flowers relinquish their hold on his body, fall away from his veins one by one as his body purges them frantically. Cyclamen blooms with their upswept petals spill from between his lips and he can’t help thinking that they’re oddly beautiful.

He blacks out again, and when he wakes he feels sore and cracked, and like a part of him is missing. He’s in an android repair center, empty bottles with traces of Thirium scattered across a small table beside him. Markus comes in, and embraces him.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he says. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Will I write more hanahaki with these two? Probably. Will I write more Connor angst revolving around flowers? Definitely for sure 100%.


End file.
